Various Shades
by Phoebe Delos
Summary: Each relationship sheds its own light on the people in it. Based on a writing challenge, 100 Colours, this is a collection of one-shots written around color-based prompts, focused on various YGO!DM pairings.
1. 13 Lemon :: Fresh :: Minorship

**Collection Notes:** This would be my copy of the stories I am writing for a writing challenge over at livejournal, in particular on a prompt for 100 stories written for 100 colors. The first 20 I did are crossed over with another writing prompt, and you can read them under **20 Scenes in 100 Words**, though I will make a list below of what colors each of those twenty were written for.

The challenge is for Yu-Gi-Oh! DM in general, but so far I have managed various different pairings, and you can expect that trend to continue, though repeats may start to come up. It all depends on what the muses cry for, though if you're looking for a specific pairing, **feel free to make a request in the reviews**, and I'll try to see to it.

The big difference between the first 20 on the other page and the next 80 here is I am no longer limited to 100 words a fic, so the lengths will vary. Genre, mood, length, settings, canon-level, and rating will vary from fic to fic, and I'll be sure to put up the rating and warnings of each individual fic up, so just look to the header at the top for the information.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment!

* * *

><p><strong><span>First Twenty Fics<span>  
><strong>**# Prompt :: Title, Pairing  
><strong>

#01 Red :: Anticipation, Dragonshipping  
>#03 Blue :: Confrontation, Powershipping<br>#18 Brown :: What We Share, Graceshipping  
>#25 Dandelion :: Regrowth, Aweshipping<br>#36 Rose :: Messages, Roseshipping  
>#49 Straw :: Descent, Gemshipping<br>#56 Yellow :: Resilient, Peachshipping  
>#57 Bittersweet :: Fall For It, Kleptoshipping<br>#71 Bronze :: Crossed Paths, Exoticshipping  
>#73 Royal Purple :: Stand-In, Rivalshipping<br>#77 Blush :: Who, Spiritshipping  
>#84 Midnight :: Foul Shock, RyouJounouchi/Yuugi  
>#89 Mint :: Swap, Fragileshipping<br>#92 Tumbleweed :: Presence, Liberashipping  
>#94 Sand :: UnseenUntapped, Impulseshipping  
>#96 Stonewashed :: Ring, Prideshipping<br>#97 Desert Sand :: Bound, Unlockshipping 

* * *

><p><strong>Title: <strong>Fresh**  
>Theme:<strong> #13 - Lemon  
><strong>Rating: <strong>PG**  
><strong>Pairing<strong>****: ******Otogi Ryuuji, Bakura Ryou. Minorshipping.****  
><strong>Word Count: <strong>****300******  
><strong>Warnings: <strong>******Implications of sex plans.********  
><strong>Summary: <strong>********A rare evening together does not excuse skipped chores.

* * *

><p>Seven hours for sleep and everything else, but he insisted on emptying the dryer and dressing the mattress from sheet to case before they made use of it. And no amount of drawing pulls or dismissals of wasting precious minutes would deter him. Bakura just leaned hips from his touch and smiled in his unaffected-set-smiling way and put the basket between them in the narrow hall, forcing Otogi into the corner long enough to slip into the bedroom and lock the door. Lest his house guest get ideas of taking advantage of a body stretched out to fit sheet elastic over a far wall corner (he learned fast, that one).<p>

It would all be very discouraging, if the same boy didn't plastered himself to his back five minutes later, clutching his waist with cheery cries of "ready when you are" like he'd finished setting up one of his boards. Too bad he couldn't help but ask, looking over his shoulder while kneeing the television off "Absolutely certain? There's no carpets or dishes or windows begging for attention first?" For the next ten minutes he lounged in a kitchen chair, eying a washing Bakura. Who chatted about needing to finish their school project tomorrow. Like he didn't hear the dice bouncing on the table.

But he must have since he looked back when the noise stopped, just as he stuck the last bowl on the drying rack. That gave him the warning of a bright-eyed smirk before he was pressed into the sink, water seeping into his jeans the likely but not certain culprit of the shivers. It made for a slippery foundation, but when he settled enough to drag his hands up to painted cheeks and black hair, Otogi wondered if that smell was the detergent or the dish soap.


	2. 45 Dusty Rose :: Momentum :: Peachship

**Title: **Momentum**  
>Theme:<strong> #45 - Dusty Rose  
><strong>Rating: <strong>G**  
><strong>Pairing<strong>****: ******Mazaki Anzu, Mutou Yuugi, Jounouchi Katsuya, Honda Hiroto. Peachshipping.****  
><strong>Word Count: <strong>****1,420******  
><strong>Warnings:<strong>****** Nothing really. Post-Series.********  
><strong>Summary: <strong>********Does growing up mean having to grow apart?

* * *

><p>"You sure you don't need any help with-"<p>

"Get back to your bucket, Jounouchi," Anzu scolds, staring him down until he stops hovering by the door, retreats to the hall and Honda's distant complaints. Once he's off her tail, she carries the refilled pot across the classroom, throwing her own cleaning partner a quick glance as she goes. Still there, facing the board. At least she didn't have to worry about Yuugi wandering off.

Watering a plant on the sill she catches the classroom's reflection in the window, and smiles.

"Can you believe we only have a couple more weeks here?"

"Yup."

Not the correct answer, but she lets it slide. A reply at all – even a distracted one – is enough to urge her on. So the memories slip out, focused more on her own image than her company.

"Seems like yesterday we just started here, remember? You staying in to solve your puzzle, the guys causing all sorts of trouble? Though, that was just yesterday, wasn't it?"

She laughs in the wake of the tease. Yuugi doesn't join in, but it's more the reality that mutes her grin. She can joke all she wants, but even if their actions mimic the beginning, everything's changed. Those two might be out in the hall, dueling with the mops by the sound of it, but they're as bound to the boy across the room as she is, and the day they teased him with any real intent has long passed.

"Though these days there's usually something to break up the routine, huh?"

New faces and friends have come into the picture, only for some to leave again. Bakura is still here of course. If you don't count this week, since he's off with his father on another flight to Egypt. At least he was spending time with the man, and would bring back news from the country. They already had a get-together planned especially for it.

"-you think Bakura-kun will want to go to that corner deli he likes, or eat in? Maybe we should pick something up."

But Otogi and Kaiba's desk, they've been empty a long time. She can't complain, since most the time she's too busy cheering on their efforts to built up their companies. Or rather Otogi's efforts – most knowledge of the Kaiba brothers came from global news.

At least they're out there, still within some measure of reach. But time ate at that, too. Longer trips, more miles, fewer messages.

"We don't get to see him as much, so we should do something special..."

And what of the rest of them? In two weeks, the only chains binding them would be of their own making. Any goals that led away from each other – even her own – could break them.

"It could be the last chance we get- I mean, until graduation. And who knows then."

Already, her account's bulking up enough for those the applications on her desk. Honda has that job lined up at his uncle's place. Jounouchi's looking for the same, coming in every morning with a newspaper, listings near his sister's circled in red.

"We might be too busy..."

Even Yuugi.

Grant it, of everyone he's staying, in the literal sense. With talk of working under his grandfather and hints of taking over himself, it's possible he'd never home. But not for sure. In every way that counts, he's moving on. After Atem left he never slowed down, not for a moment. If anything, he's rushing forward, speaking only of the next game, assignment, tournament, goal. Nothing slows him down.

And sometimes, that new confidence scares her.

He's here now, but seeing him so assured, focused outwards, makes disappearing at the first whim a possibility. Simply because he's capable.

The idea spurs her around, looking for the boy behind her. And there he is, still across the room. The desks on that end and board don't looked washed like she expected, but it takes a couple seconds staring to wonder what exactly he's doing at the teacher's desk. It's almost like he's stacking something, slowly. And whatever it is is pretty tall, and when he leans a bit, she sees a few-

"Yuugi!"

"Gah-!"

Anzu stays as is, fuming as Yuugi jumps back, knocks over his tower of erasers with a flailing arm, and falls with the remains in a dust cloud.

She's not sure which is worse- that he's been playing games instead of cleaning, or doing it while she's over here trying to talk to him.

Huffing, she waits until it clears, then comes over to glower down, focusing on the dozen or so erasers rather than the boy rubbing his eyes.

"When did you get all of these?"

"Ah, when I took the trash out..."

"And?"

"...and when you went to get the water?"

A stare down meets a quavery grin, undone by Yuugi leaning against the desk. As far from her as possible. A weak try at innocence, but she rolls her eyes and reaches down, patting dust from his hair.

"I thought we should have taken the hall, but you would just stack buckets like bowling pins instead, huh?"

"Eh-heh, sorry..."

Another smile, and she's the one wavering now. Ah, what can she do but return it, help him clean up? But as she's picking erasers up, considering calling Jounouchi to mop the floor, there's a tentative word-poke at her shoulder.

"...hey, Anzu-chan?"

"Hmm?"

She freezes in her kneel at the look on Yuugi's down-turned face. The one that says he's dragging something up he'd normally keep to himself. But even that calling card doesn't stop the shock.

"You know, it doesn't matter where you go- I mean, where anyone goes." He starts with his own correction, glancing her way, then at his hands again, likely from whatever he saw in her face.

But an intake, and he's smiling directly at her, certainty in what he says layered under the hesitance to say it.

"We'll visit or talk or whatever it takes to stay together. And until then, we just have to not worry about it. Or the past."

That add-on gets a beat of weight in his eyes, one that mirrors the equal that slams into her, forcing her eyes down with a gulf of shame she can't place the source of. Not fully, at least. But he doesn't let the silence settle. Her hands are full, but he grasps the back of her fingers, and she can't mind the pink he's rubbing into them. She's drawn back up.

"We should be _making_ memories, not dwelling on them!"

She's caught, staring into his smile while wondering how she ever doubted and what she expected and what she's waiting for all at once.

"You're right..."

Yuugi's shoulders relax, grin back with a grateful look, like he's thankful for just her agreement. But before he can let go and move on and let the seriousness slide, she drops that hand's load and pulling him forward by the wrist. She catches a flash of wide eyes, but squeezes hers shut as she leans for his mouth.

It's a mess. She misses and catches just the corner and the rising dust makes her pull back and sneeze before she can correct it. And he's staring at her. Not in a bad way, but in a baffled, shocked to find a door he thought long shut and locked wide open way.

But what is he thinking? She opens her mouth to ask, but then can't think of something to say, and rubs at her nose like it still tickles when it doesn't, using the excuse to look away. Attempting a joke and failing.

"That didn't go like I expected..."

"Anzu-chan-"

That soft tone spurs hope, but as she looks his way, as he takes a step towards her, a creak to the side draws their attention to the back door.

Their missing friends are standing there. Faces too open to pretend they'd just walked in.

For a few beats they're silent, Honda shocked, Anzu indignant, Yuugi miserable, Jounouchi amused.

"It's about time! Hey Yuugi, you gonna return the favor or wha-"

"Jounouchi- Honda-"

Anzu's dropping the last erasers and at the door before they blink. Seconds later she corners them down the hall, when Honda trips on his mop, dragging Jounouchi down with him. Yuugi hears them cry against punishment, but stays where he is, kneeling on the tile drawing pictures in the chalk dust.


	3. 23 Jade :: Accents :: Unnamed Ship

**Title: **Accents**  
>Theme:<strong> #23 - Jade  
><strong>Rating: <strong>G**  
><strong>Pairing<strong>****: ******Thief King Bakura, Atem, Aknamkanon, Unnamed Character. Unnamed Ship.******  
><strong>Word Count: <strong>******501**********  
><strong>Warnings: <strong>**********Back story making drama, iffy Egypt knowledge.************  
><strong>Summary: <strong>************A witness to an unburied story.

* * *

><p>A metal brace curved and twisted into a serpent's image, only pinpricks of green among sheer gold. The image matched that of countless others perched on crowns, rings, belts, collars, a myriad of other pieces packed together in a makeshift sack.<p>

But an hour earlier it was tucked against the wall of a sarcophagus, the only gold inside not worn by the noble occupant. It would not fit him, formed for a thinner arm. The arm of his consort, one of the golden crop of his mother's brother's wife, born across the sea.

A lifetime ago Aknadin whispered the foreign noble bore locks of yellow that she passed on to all her daughters, hidden by the constant protection of covering. They would take whiffs of time between lessons and prayers to watch them in the courtyard, the halls, looking for a sign of something different, special. But they blended with cousins and kin by the magic of wigs.

The first to support the claim was Aknamkanon, many years later, when he peaked under the veil of the youngest daughter on their wedding night. The discovery was made with fear, fear of rejection and indigence of secrets kept. But to him it was the touch of the sun on his wife, his family, a blessing to be celebrated.

She never felt secure without covering it, but in public he sought to mimic it, showering her in the color of her nature, astounding his people that his lady gleamed more than her lord.

With time he did not stick to the metal alone. Her gold became accented by garnet beads at her waist, obsidian in braces, jasper upon her chest. Each given in person for some occasion or another, from the celebration of her official entrance as his wife to the most passing festival shared.

But her favorite by far was the coil of Wadjet, passed over the body of their newborn son, allowing it a glimpse of the next king through jade eyes. A sight it would see for many days to come from the arm of its mistress, rarely removed. It beheld her finally take pride in her gold when shots of it appeared on the brow of her babe, how she carried and played with him each day, until she did not have the strength to anymore. It was removed only when the time came to prepare her for rest beneath the earth, returned to her king, who kept it close in his turn.

But it had not looked on the child again, not until now, as it cascades across the floor, rattling still beside the corpse of its giver. It stares up, unnoticed by its owner's indignant heir, fighting for his father. It stays silent when gathered up with the rest of the loot, returned to its resting place.

The well-meaning tomb restorer will tuck the armlet away in a chest along with the rest, far across the great space of Aknamkanon's tomb, separating him from the last spark.


	4. 68 Sepia :: Variation :: Dragonship

**Title: **Variation on a Theme Pt. 1****  
>Theme:<strong> **#68 - Sepia**  
><strong>Rating: <strong>**PG for vague fondling.******  
>CharactersPairing: ******Mutou Yuumi (Yuugi), Yami no Yuumi, Jounouchi Katsumi (Katsuya), Honda Hiroko (Hiroto), Mazaki Aoi (Anzu), Johji. Dragonship.********  
>Word Count: <strong>******752********  
>Warnings:<strong> ******Selective gender-swapped world, alternative canon. Also, this is confusing unless you know the Death-T arc.**********  
>Summary:<strong>******** A twitch of feelings can change far more than meets the eye.  
><strong>Notes: <strong>Expect far more of this world in future drabbles.

* * *

><p>"HONDA!"<p>

Yuumi blinked as a wall swam before her, then caught herself on a hand on realizing things were moving because she was falling. On recovering she looked up to see her friends banging on the same wall, an arm's length away. Two of them, that is. The named third was nowhere to be seen, but blurry experience and the way the two slammed against that depressed section of wall, Hiroko must be stuck somewhere beyond it.

"Aoi-kun? Katsumi-kun?"

Katsumi spun about at her voice. For a second her eyes, brimming with tears, were still caught in the same raged horror, but they softened a bit on seeing her face. As if there was something different about her.

"Yuumi."

There was an uncertain relief in the answer, but Yuumi didn't hold it against her. Going by the scene she saw, she'd picked a bad time to wake up. She didn't remember falling asleep, but the last thing she recalled was Kaiba egging that masked murderer to kill her best friend from across a television screen. The stress of it must have triggered the usual blackout. Or triggered somebody else's need to wake up.

Yes, she was aware of the shifts, and starting to understand the source, too. But she hadn't told her friends and that secrecy, the unknowing what happened in the latest interim made her near as anxious as the missing Hiroko, the pain etched on her friends' faces.

"What's going on?"

"You don't remember?" Aoi had stopped banging with the arm not holding Johji when Yuumi spoke up, but his near-appalled glance made her want to sink straight through the floor, even if there was no trace of judgment in his eyes. No, even if Aoi was the type, he was clearly far too worried to lecture. "Hiroko is trapped in that room!"

"W-what?" More dread than shock.

"Yes! And with those blocks falling... For all we know, she's-"

The breaking effect in her oldest friend's blue eyes would have been worth a pause, a comfort, a question, if Katsumi didn't near bark in his face.

"No! Don't you say it, Mazaki! Honda wouldn't die that easy! You hear me in there?"

As she started yelling through the unforgiving wall again, Yuumi nearly collapsed back to the ground, the waves of _How did this happen? What's become of Hiroko-kun? She was here because of me _falling over her. But before her knees could buckle she felt a clap on the small of her back, tingling up her spine, smarting her brain, keeping her from falling over. A look back showed no one, and the feeling left as quick as it came, the only sign it was there at all the vanquishing of her growing hysteria. And the way she'd stumbled towards Katsumi, against her will.

But she followed the motion without qualms, grabbing for taller blonde's punching arm.

"You're right," she started, but as soon as desperate brown eyes landed on her she floundered, doubt making her flinch. "Hiroko-kun's, got to be okay, doesn't she? We just have to believe it!"

The strange confidence boost was dying before she even got the words out, but it looked to be enough, because Katsumi gave a loud laugh, shaking her off with a reinforced laugh.

"Of course I am! I mean she is. I mean I do. I mean- Aw, you know what I mean!"

A beam brought a re-balancing of Yuumi's heart, and she felt a pleased calm that when beyond herself._ Oh, is that it? _Yuumi asked herself in a way she'd never tried before, while best friend turned to the oldest, putting out arms for the disgruntled babe suddenly turned excited and fidgeted.

"You know what? I think I'm ready to forgive the little traitor. Come on, I'll look after him until Honda's back to handle- _don't touch me you brat!_" Katsumi cut herself off when Johji instantly clung to her front, what he'd gone for obvious by the screech and where he hung on when she tried to drag him off again.

The sight might have been funny, if their missing friend wasn't still obvious, and Yuumi wasn't still trying to tease out something while Aoi grappled for the child before it got punched.  
><em><br>Did you wake me up so I could be here for Katsumi-kun?_

No answer, and she wasn't sure if the nervous shift in her stomach was her own or someone else's.**  
><strong>


End file.
